Fear Not But Fear Itself
by Nari Song
Summary: A Deserted Planet. A Dark Secret. A Deadly Nightmare. We are always told to face our fears. The only problem is....What if they're already facing you?


_**Ciao,**_

I certainly do not wish to claim the ownership of the Doctors name. Or whatever thing that I've not thought; to avoid confusion which may be wrought.

_**Nari Song**_

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**Fear Not But Fear Itself**

"I have almost forgot the taste of fears.  
The time has been my senses would have cool'd  
To hear a night shriek, and my fell of hair  
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir  
As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors;  
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,  
Cannot once start me."_ - Macbeth_

Together with the gentle rocking of the TARDIS in its suspended state and the dark atmosphere studded with the hypnotic glowing swirls of lights and shapes, Rose decided that it was a scene which you could easily either fall asleep to or stare at fascinated for your entire life. It rather depended on your state of mind. For Rose, she would never get used to it. Never. It was also easy to see that even after his nine hundred years of life, the Doctor still hadn't got used to it. You could see it on his face, each day, as they opened the blue worn doors of the police box after a haphazard landing, the childish excitement appear on his face at the prospect of a new life to be lived. Rose wouldn't be surprised if her own face also reflected that same joy. She smiled and continued to stare out at part of the universe they were momentarily parked in. They had stopped for the time being to let the Doctor do whatever he did when they stopped like this. She never asked beyond a simple 'why' before giving up, happily knowing she would never keep up with his insistent "jiggery pokery' as she called it. This time it was due to some form of calibrating, but that was all she had got.

"Getting lost in thought may put you in unfamiliar territory, you know"

Rose rolled her eyes and turned towards the direction of the voice. The Doctor stood behind her just at the back of her shoulder looking out at the glowing swirls just as she had. With the striped suit, brown coat, and black rimmed glasses, he looked exactly like what he had the day before. And the day before that, and the day before that day, and the day before the day of that, and so on. Defiantly time to go shopping, she thought, and laughed once.

"What?"

The Doctor now peered down at her, the pulsing blue light coming from the centre of the TARDIS casting shadows on him and giving him an even more hawkish look.

"Nothing" she said, turning back to the outside. "Just thinking"

'Like I said, that can be very dangerous.'

Rose turned for the second time looked at him appraisingly. "I would be more worried if your mind wandered off and never came back, I _still _don't know how to fly this thing". She hoped he would pick up her subtle hint on the flying issue. She had been wanting to learn to fly the TARDIS since the sixth time of crash landing on a planet or in a different time. She had seriously had enough of falling onto her back onto the hard steel walkways each time, and thought that their chances of exhibiting the same type of landing again would be lessened if she were able to help. It had come to nothing though. Yet.

The doctor was talking again.

"You see there was this one planet which was created to be a mind animator for all thoughts. In other words if you were to go to said planet and think of a banana you would see one."

"What, a banana would just appear?" Rose asked, her interest spiked.

"No, not a real banana of course. No one has the technology or ability to create a living or even an inanimate thing out of thin air, it's just not possible. No, that's not what this planet did. This planet took your thoughts and created a semblance of that thing." He moved to the control seat, sitting down on it and crossing his arms. Rose followed him, except remained standing leaning up against the warm panels of the TARDIS.

"I guess in some ways you could say it made an illusion" he continued. "Except a very, very good one. It would also be possible to eat the banana if one was hungry. However, though you could eat it and even think that because of this action you weren't hungry anymore, you would not in fact be full. Why do you think?" he asked, one eyebrow raised.

Rose's forehead scrunched up as she thought about his question. "I guess" she started. "I guess it would be because you couldn't really be full on something which isn't actually there could you?"

"No you couldn't be, exactly right" They both smiled at each other until a beep which quickly rose in a crescendo to a high pitch screech and a sharp jolt of the TARDIS made the Doctor jump into action, pressing buttons scattered over the consol and pulling a few levels in opposite directions.

Rose's heart leaped. "What's wrong" she asked quickly, looking at his hands flying over the controls.

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all" he replied happily, pressing a final button before grinning at her. "The TARDIS was just reminding me that I hadn't turned on the auto pilot. We were starting to drift."

"You actually have an auto pilot?" Rose laughed.

"Of course" the Doctor, looking slightly offended. "All registered flying time and space craft's should have one installed. As I'm a law abiding citizen right to the bone I also do."

"Law abiding?" Rose's laughter doubled. "I like that. It's such a good example of incongruity you should be awarded a medal." The Doctor looked more offended.

Then a thought came to her.

"But why were you using it though? Doesn't the TARDIS take control of those sorts of things?"

"Well that's the thing." he said coming to sit back down. "Usually the TARDIS does take control, but sometimes I need to use some of her components for other reasons and it mucks up her control system for awhile." He stroked the TARDIS as he said this.

"Oh. Anyway, what was the planet named?"

"Planet?" The Doctor asked mistily, still stroking the TARIS, confusion etched on his face.

"The planet we were just talking about" Rose said, emphasising each word and speaking slowly.

When the Doctor continued to look confused she sighed. "The one with the very, very good illusion of bananas Doctor."

"Oh yes. Yes!" he cried understanding dawning on his face. "Illusious it's called. Not a particularly good name by all accounts, the owner mustn't have been very creative to say the least. I'm guessing that it was meant to be a rendition of illusion."

"Can we go see it?"

"Can't sorry" he said, shaking his head. "Not anymore anyway. It doesn't exist. It was shut down; well, destroyed is probably the more correct phrase really."

"Really? Rose asked surprised "Why? It sounds fantastic." It did truly sound like a place she could spend awhile in. Just being able to envision something and then get it sounded great. Even if it wasn't actually real, it would still be fantastic she thought.

"Haven't you ever heard the saying that too much of a good thing is bad?" The Doctor asked, patting the seat beside him. "Well, it's the same with this. The planet was badly used and abused. People would spend days at a time there, eating what they thought was real food, and drinking what they thought was a real liquid, when of course it wasn't, was it? Instead of gorging on what they thought were banquets, they were in fact starving."

Rose sat down." So you're telling me that people died on there? That's terrible!"

"Exactly" the doctor agreed. "Then there were the people who had a too extensive imagination and created such an enormous, realistic world that they could not return from their own minds. They were found as raving lunatics when the world was evacuated, lost within their own thoughts"

Rose just stared.

The Doctor continued talking.

"And then there were the types of people who went there just to indulge themselves...if you know what I mean." The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

I'm pretty sure I know what you mean" Rose replied raising an eyebrow of her own, a habit picked up lately. "Go on".

"Well I'm guessing they just didn't want to leave. They were finally ripped from their own thoughts. Nothing bad happened to those who had to be extracted from their minds though." The doctor said happily. "Not really. Only some slight cases of amnesia through the male populations of some species."

"Figures" Rose said rolling her eyes.

The Doctor laughed. "There were still some female cases, just not that common"

"Wonder what that says 'eh?"

"And then there were the people who..." the Doctor continued, ignoring her question, and then stopped as Rose threw her hands up to stop the torrent of words which would have emerged out of his mouth.

"It's Ok, I get it" she said smiling. "Getting lost in thought _can_ put you in unfamiliar territory."

The Doctor waggled his sonic screwdriver at her which he had grabbed off the consol in front of them. "You see, at least your mum can be happy that I'm teaching you something. I believe in making every experience educational."

"Hmmm..." Rose looked out through the still open doors and tried not to role her eyes again. "Well then, if Illusious is a no-show then where to next?" Excitement started course through her body. She couldn't wait to get going again.

"Well I was thinking of trying out the random synthesiser today". The Doctor's face became excited as he jumped to his feet.

"The what?" Rose had never heard of the thing the Doctor was now looking so excited about.

"The random synthesiser. I installed it today. It actually had a much longer and exceedingly more difficult name which made it harder to say; instead I decided to change it."

"What does it do?" The Doctor, who now resembled an excited child who had just received a new toy, was turning numerous knobs and pressing countless buttons in swift actions in front of her.

"It randomly picks out a time and location and takes you there. It's like a lucky dip!" he cried running to the other side of the console and continued his unrelenting pressing of buttons on the other side.

Rose was now curious. "How does it work?" she asked following him around the consol.

"Well..." the Doctor said in his long drawn out way. "Among other things for me, all _you_ need to do is press that button right there."

His finger pointed at a great red button, just below the monitor, which Rose was certain hadn't been there before.

"Generally that is the type of button which would be accompanied by a large sign reading 'DO NOT PRESS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE' Rose said turning to look at the Doctor who was hovering over her shoulder. " And an insistent urge to press it as soon as possible to see what it does."

"Well then, you should be happy" he said, grinning at her. "I'm satisfying your curiosity, _as well_ as allowing you to press a 'NOT TO BE PRESSED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE' button."

Roses hand closed over the mushroomed shaped button and then glanced back at the Doctor." Well come on then" she said, jerking her head in the direction of the button.

The Doctor smiled and placed his own hand onto of hers. "3..."

"...2..." Rose continued

The Doctor hand tightened about Rose's. "...1..."

"...0" they both said as their hands simultaneously pressed down on the red button.

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**__**Ciao,**_

_**Nari Song**_


End file.
